April 17 I Friday

2 Samuel 1-2

Luke 14:1-24

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  —Galatians 5:1

The opening verse of this devotion begs the question, what has Christ freed us from? Christ has set us free from the law-based approach to pleasing and satisfying a Holy God. Although the gospel invites us into freedom from sin and a life led by the Spirit, the reality is that some of us may slide into legalism or into license and loose living.

For example, imagine a glove lying on a table. If we were to say to it, “Glove, pick up the Bible. Go ahead, pick up the Bible,” it will just continue to lie there. Even if a pastor preached an excellent three-point sermon to the glove and described how the glove should not only live in the fullness of what it was created for but also instructed it on how to pick up the Bible, the glove will just remain there lifelessly. This is what our Christian experience is like when the law is our tutor. The law lists God’s demands on how to be holy and righteous. Yet, we can never attain to perfection with the teachings of the law; like the glove, we will just lie there lifelessly because we are spiritually dead.

The glove cannot do what it is designed to do
until a hand goes into the glove. The moment a hand goes into the glove, life has entered into the glove and the glove can do what we have instructed it to do, such as picking up the Bible.

What Paul is saying to the Galatian church is that the Holy Spirit had entered into their life because it is the power and the strength that animates the Christian life. Prior to that we lay there lifeless, spiritually dead and unable to live the life that God had created us to live. But when we place our faith in Christ, like life coming into the glove, we are able to
function. Christ has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

     Christ took away all of our sin, all of our mistakes, all of our errors and all of our disobedience when He died on that cross. Paul explains, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14). We are forgiven, not because of what we have done, but because of what He did on the cross. Jesus set us free from the bondage to sin. It is finished.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for Your finished work on the cross. Thank You for giving me life through Your Spirit. Help me to live a life that glorifies You. Amen!